I sat vigil over Tony’s bedside
for sixteen hours before he died
on Christmas Eve, five days before
his nineteenth birthday.
Nurses came and went, checking his vitals,
propping his pillows, asking if he needed
warm blankets or the window opened.
We traded cancer stories and laughed about how
the hospital food reminded us of radiation treatment.
I went through 37 rounds
and had been cancer-free for nine months.
He went through 28 twice before the cancer
came back and took over his entire body.
When I got to the hospital, Tony was frail,
pale-skinned, and frequently lost his breath
in the middle of a good memory.
He died just before midnight,
as the Christmas carolers sang from down the hall.
I remained at his empty bedside
long into the silence of morning,
sitting vigil over what could have been me.

I would like to thank Fernando Gallegos for providing artwork for this project, including the cover art! Also, thanks go out to Denise R. Weuve, whose selfless help aided the project’s completion!

Happy reading!

Sincerely Yours,

Charles Banks, Jr.

Synopsis by Denise R. Weuve (Poet)

“It takes courage to be a poet, and even more courage to write from the dark places most people attempt to hide. Black Angel (pen name for Charles Banks, Jr.) flourishes in these places. He plows the earth to see what is beneath the soil, and finds the beauty in the lost seeds that were never watered, those trapped beneath oppressive roots blocking their growth, and all the “mislead beauty” that no one seems to care about. In this chapbook collection, Burdens, you will find a man not afraid to show vulnerability and the harsh truths that surround his life. In “The Fireplace” he starts the poem with, A reflection of scolding hot truths and each of these poems seem like Black Angel’s deepest truths. “Inheritance” is such an example. Here we have a persona so thoroughly incased in the truth of the life he has been trust into, that he sees no hope, and no empathy outside his own body. When you reach “Finale” you will have been taken on a journey that questioned society, afterlife, diseases, love, and most importantly the self. You will have no more answers than Black Angel does, but you will have visited a world that only he could have taken you to, and that in return will make you look more deeply into your own.”